In June 2026, airpower experts from the U.S. Air Force, seven allied air forces, and industry convened for a three-day wargame designed to stress notional 2036 USAF combat forces in a series of concurrent crises: a Russian assault against NATO...
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The Challenge of Funding Golden Dome By Courtney Albon HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—The four-star general in charge of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program warned that uncertainty around the Pentagon’s $350 billion reconciliation request could slow progress on the homeland missile defense effort,...
The Airman’s imperative to defend from small uninhabited aerial vehicles. The air base has become a central target set. Small drones have become one of the defining air threats of modern warfare, representing a structural change in the character of...
Just over a year after becoming the 27th Secretary of the Air Force, Troy Meink believes he’s making progress on his top priorities—increasing Air Force readiness, modernizing its aircraft fleet, and growing the nascent Space Force.
Epic Fury’s Epic Cost: $29B By Chris Gordon The cost of operations against Iran has risen to $29 billion, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers May 12, a $4 billion increase from the Department of Defense’s last public estimate two...
China’s rise, Iranian terror, and Russian belligerence point to the enduring need for deterrent airpower. Scale matters. The U.S. Air Force may not need to match China plane for plane, but it cannot continue to shrink to a shadow of its former size. Airpower is ...
The Air Force has five Institutional Commands focused on the recruit, train, and equip function of the department, and 10 Service Component Commands focused on meeting the needs of the nation’s joint combatant commands.
Gallery of Space Systems
The world is changing—fast. And you don’t need to have exclusive access to bespoke intelligence capabilities to see those changes yourself. Open-source intelligence sources can now inform public debate on national security issues like never before. Commercial satellite imagery accessible with a credit card offers ...
Clearly, our Air Force can land a powerful punch. The question is, can it last 10 rounds against a fellow heavyweight?
Trump Promises a $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget What a 50% Spending Boost Might Mean for the Air Force and Space Force. By Courtney Albon President Donald Trump was so impressed with the military’s successful Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela Jan. 3...
Golden Dome is one of the most ambitious defense projects ever mounted. It seeks to develop a missile defense shield for the entire continental United States (CONUS) against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile threats and to defend against air and UAV threats. To be an ...